Dennis Quaid's newborn twins nearly died after a medical error at a hospital. By telling their story, he hopes to help prevent the same thing from happening to anyone else. In 2007, while they were at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, Thomas and Zoe Quaid were accidentally given two doses of the adult blood thinner Heparin that's 1,000 times stronger than the pediatric version. In a recent interview with The Associated Press following a speech to the National Press Club in Washington, Quaid said, “There were 41 hours where their lives were in the balance.” He said it was the most frightening day of his life and left him and his wife, Kimberly, in “shock, anger and confusion.” Quaid, 56, found out that medical mistakes like the one that happened to his twins in the Los Angeles hospital are a widespread problem. “Medical mistakes count for 100,000 people dying a year,” he said. He added, “This is preventable error.” One solution, said Quaid, is to raise awareness. Even many health care leaders are not aware of how big the problem is, he said. Quaid has produced and narrates a documentary about medical mistakes called “Chasing Zero: Winning the War on Heathcare Harm.” It will air on the Discovery Channel April 24. Quaid hopes the documentary will hit viewers in an emotional way.
